Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

Jakarta (dpa) – Nearly 100 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar were taken to shore on Thursday after being rescued by fishermen off Indonesia's Aceh province, a resident and the UN refugee agency said.

Fishermen decided to bring them to shore on humanitarian grounds because they were weak and hungry, even though authorities had not decided about what to do with them, said Muhammad Hasan, leader of the coastal community in North Aceh.

The Rohingya – 15 men, 49 women and 30 children – had been drifting about four miles off the coast of North Aceh when their wooden vessel broke down.

"It was raining hard so we decided to bring them to shore," Hasan said. "One of them was sick and was taken to a local clinic."

Authorities in Jakarta have not decided whether they will allow the Rohingya to enter the country, said a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR in Indonesia, Mitra Salima Suryono.

"We are still coordinating with the relevant authorities about the next steps," she said.

Thousands of Rohingya have become stranded in Aceh over the past five years after their boats drifted while en route to Malaysia and other countries.

UN investigators have accused Myanmar's military of carrying out mass killings and other atrocities against the Muslim minority with "genocidal intent" during a 2017 campaign that forced more than 730,000 across the border into Bangladesh.